


This Is Not My World And Not My War

by IJustWannaAskSomething



Category: Borderlands
Genre: F/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pandora is a horrible place, Violence, dark humour
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-02
Updated: 2016-06-25
Packaged: 2018-06-06 00:13:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,988
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6729190
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IJustWannaAskSomething/pseuds/IJustWannaAskSomething
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The tribes of Pandora are at never ending war. The Monks fight a losing battle and are forced to form a bond with the Psychos – the most brutal and ruthless creatures to walk upon the earth. They are known for their cruelty as well as their love for torture and occasional cannibalism. Maya, one of the last Sirens (powerful beings both graced and cursed) is send to them as a sign for their goodwill in exchange for troops.</p>
<p>Whilst the Monks are set to eradicate the Pirates with the help of their new allies, Maya is set to escape. She doesn’t know where to go, as long as it’s far, far away from all this madness and also far, far away from the King of Madness – Krieg.</p>
<p>Also posted on FF.net</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. One

**Author's Note:**

> Hi and welcome to my first Borderlands fanfiction!  
> Please let me know what you think!
> 
> I am not sure yet if I want to go down the "arranged marriage" slope, thoughts?

Sweat formed on her pale forehead, soaked her brow and tickled her skin before it disappeared in the itchy tunic she wore – no luxuries unless she proved herself worthy. She tried to focus but just couldn’t because it was hot and loud and there were what feelt like a million people staring at her.  
Maya loathed this. Everything. The Monks, her clothes, the heat, her powers, the gawkers, the planet – everything. Training, as The Monks call it, was the worst.  
As one of the last Sirens on Pandora she was incredibly valuable if (and only if) she could control her powers and use them to aid the noble cause of The Monks: warfare. Psychological warfare. They wanted her to go as far as demoralize their enemies’ troops until they were sobbing messes on the ground and to control their leaders to surrender or lead their soldiers down a cliff.  
It seemed like war was the only thing her powers could be used for. Good for her because the world was a battlefield. The world is split up in nations and tribes, originating for the great clan wars between the Hodunks and Zafords. The latter two had come to a fragile ceasefire after a long feud until some idiot found it funny to play both sides and start the greatest war ever. After splitting most of the smaller regions amongst themselves the quarrel within the territories began and soon it wasn’t a clan fight anymore but everyone against everyone with smaller tribes forming.  
The Monks were a bunch of crazy guys believing that they were Gods (or whomevers) gift to Pandora but somehow everyone failed to realize their awesomeness and therefore they weren’t the single rulers of all parts of the planet, but with Maya they aimed to change that.  
Everyday Maya would get up before the sun, wash quickly and take her place in the church (they called it church, but it was just ruins of something old and forgotten) and practice. An unlucky apprentice would sit in front of her and waited to be mind-controlled or something. Really, Sirens hadn’t been around in a long time and no one really knew what Mayas powers could exactly do. So they gave her helpful tips such as to focus on the feeling or trying to grasp the connection, what didn’t help her focus on anything at all.  
So she had taken to dream away the hours in the dusty ruin and even managed to pass it off as a kind of meditation. In reality she planned her escape from the small castle through the city that surrounded the high walls and finally be free. She would travel through land and sea, find friends and have the greatest adventures ever. She didn’t really plan on where to go first, but it didn’t matter, as long as it was away from the lying bastards The Monks were.  
That The Monks were feeding her lies had dawned her pretty soon and the vision of becoming a powerful goddess that had been so appealing to the small girl faded quickly. The respect for her had turned into controlling every step she took and from day to day she felt more caged.  
It didn’t help that Morton, the person she couldn’t stand the most, was her partner for the day. One day, she would make his head explode with her powers she vowed to herself every time she saw the guy. He was maybe her only motivation to finally unlock her powers right now, plus killing people with just your stares sounded pretty cool.  
“Maya, dear, you must focus. Find the source of your powers within you and drink from it.”  
She mentally rolled her eyes and imagined Mortons death a little more vividly – with no success.  
“Wait, I think I feel something!” Morton rambled with that terrible voice of his (a mix between a lisp, a broken nose and horrible character). The Monks that supervised her rushed a little closer, faces tight and excited. Maya too snapped her eyes open and studied him, how is facial expression slowly chanced. Was this the look of someone whose head would blow up like a firemelon?  
He burped. Long. Loud. And gross.  
“Na, false alarm.”  
The Siren tried not to launch herself at him and beat him to death with his own arm. The Monks were equally unamused.  
“We will continue this another day.” One of them said. He wore a yellow sash that clashed terribly with the blue robes and was higher ranked than the others. This was the first time the supervisor had a remotely good idea.

Back in her room, that was more of a cell with a bed, three books and an empty chessboard she stared at the ceiling. Sometimes the rough stone would become the soft sand of the desert that lay behind that long river that led to the empty ocean. All those places she wasn’t allowed to even hear of waited for her to be discovered.  
Maya curled her fists and bit her tongue – one day she’d kill all of them and be free forever.

***  
Maya didn’t know much of the world outside, just about the war and that everyone was bad, except for The Monks. Ironically their carefully constructed stories and lies didn’t turn her into the mindless puppet they wanted but rather in a critical thinker that didn’t trust anyone as far as she could throw them.  
She knew about the tribes and the nations. The nations were Hyperion and the Crimson Raiders, both too big to actually care about the quarrels going on between the tribes and both claiming that the other one is a terribly traitor. They have more important things to do than raiding each others camps (like the tribes did on an almost daily basis): they did politics and negotiations where they would talk a lot and try to eradicate each other with huge flying warships and cannons larger than a house.  
The tribes rarely saw them (only some mercenaries passing through or explosions in the sky) except when they broadcasted their propaganda trying to make the tribes their allies, but both sides knew that this would never happen. The nations didn’t have a problem with resources. They were wealthy enough to import them from other planets where they had colonies. And what they didn’t want fell to the rest of Pandora. You can bet your worn out boots that everything you possess was either ripped from dead body or stolen from a train that belonged to one of the nations.  
The tribes however had nothing but their cruelty and black humour. Ironically, each tribe lacked something other tribes had and possessed something others desperately needed. Mayas question, why they all didn’t just collaborate and finally make peace was left unanswered, mainly because she was told to shut up and not to worry about things she didn’t understand.  
But even Maya knew that The Monks lacked an army. They lived in lush green fields of grass, many farmers lived there but no warriors to protect them. Maya seemed to be their only long term line of defence because the Grad Master said that an own army was way too expensive and they lacked recruits anyways.  
Until now.  
There had been another raid, poor souls running for their life to seek shelter in the city. Bandits from the Rustyyards were behind it and took everything the people had.  
Maya knew no details but she caught onto the whispers of her guards. Apparently they had been more than cruel and a lot of people seemed to consider moving away or submit to the power of other tribes. This seemed to upset The Monks a lot and they spend more time than ever talking and her training sessions were cut short or cancelled completely.  
The first few days Maya was glad because she could actually sleep in, but it became boring pretty soon. She lost track of time and was interrupted in her self-pity and drowsiness after what felt like ages.  
The main conference hall was too, a ruin, but in a little better shape than the rest of the buildings and decorated with everything blue they could find. She never knew if they chose blue because of her hair or if blue hat been their significant colour before she was brought to them. Their most prized possession (after Maya herself) was a blue power core from a Hyperion loader, thought it lost its glow after they beat it with rocks. A monk who had touched it activated some secret power button – and was shocked to death.  
Maya was confused, not only because she slept too much but also because of the amount of people who were there. That meant whatever they had decided was important. She took a seat between one of her guards (the one who smelled like dead feet) and Morton (who was worse than dead feet) and prayed it would be over soon.

“My brothers! Rise for the council!”  
The blue haired girl stood up and rolled her eyes. Did they always have to be so dramatic? The six eldest made their way into the middle of the hall and took a moment to feel important before everyone could sit down again.  
“The great council has decided!” One of them began. “We cannot leave the last attacks unanswered. The burned our houses, killed our men, robbed our goods and raped our woman.” He made an art pause that Maya used to cringe. “My brothers, the time to fight back has come!”  
A murmur waved through the hall and Mayas stomach twisted. Was this one of their latest lies? Announce that Maya was ready? Feed the unhappy crowd more promises of a better tomorrow but with her to blame? It was surely much easier to say the Siren had lost her powers than to admit that The Monks were a bunch of Fuck Ups.  
“We will rise from the ashes of our past like a mighty phoenix!” He continued. That worried her even more. It wouldn’t be the first time she thought about her future if she couldn’t to the magic everyone counted on. Would they sacrifice her? In fire?  
“And strike back with tenfold cruelty!” Her stomach was in knots. She didn’t want to die. She didn’t want to be stoned to death by disappointed villagers that thought the blue haired girl could protect them. She wanted to live.  
“Today, my brothers, is the last day of our suffering! We will never be looked upon again! With our new allies we shall rule the Badlands!” His voice echoed through the hall and was drowned by the rumble of voiced. Allies. He said allies. Plural. There was a chance for her. Or they only sacrificed her and Morton, because she failed and he was a douche, that would make to situation remotely better.  
“The Psychos…” He had to calm the crowd that started talking again when the name of one of the worst tribes was mentioned, before he could speak again. “The Psychos have accepted our offer and will smash our enemies!” Shouts filled the hall and Maya wanted them to shut up. The feeling that she had something to do with this was overwhelming and she was torn between running away and scream at the Monk to tell her the details.  
“Maya my child, step forward.” He held a hand a hand out to her. Everything after that she did on auto pilot. She did her best not to look surprised. She smiled. She nodded. She accepted the makeshift crown on her head. She let herself be ushered out of the hall and into another building.  
Suddenly she wished that she had never longed for freedom. She was sure that this was the punishment of the god The Monks prayed to, because she wanted to flee and leave The Monks and the city to rot.  
She was given to The Psychos. Given like a present. A present to make them like you. And she was sure, that she would meet her death. If she wasn’t tortured or raped she surely would be eaten alive. Because Psychos did that on occasion.  
“We can be glad you haven’t found your powers yet. That means The Psychos won’t use you against us and only with us you can complete your training. You will remain safe there. They know not to touch you. Krieg has assured your safety.” One of her chaperones said.  
She couldn’t care less about how valuable she was or Krieg.  
Maya wanted to live.


	2. Chapter 2

Her day couldn’t get any more awkward.

Some woman from the village had come to prepare her for her great day. The day wouldn’t be so great thought. She would sit upon whatever carriage like thing they made for her and would wave at the (hopefully non-existent) crowd whilst she left the city. The people would pretend they didn’t just learn about her existence like an hour ago and actually miss her. Then she would travel to the Psychos territory, probably without any trouble and without any opportunity for Maya to escape. What would then happen, she didn’t know.

The woman brushed her long blue hair until her skull itched and tried to put it into something that resembled a proper hairdo. It didn’t matter to Maya anyways, the journey to the Psychos would take some days and she didn’t plan to leave the seashell clips in her hair longer than she could see the city walls. Then they helped her dress (thank goodness she had been allowed to wash and partly dress herself privately) and that all in super awkward silence.

They smudged a bit of coal on her eyelids and dabbed a little red on her lips, then they left with a murmured good luck.

With a sight she leaned back in the creaky chair and tried to make herself as comfortable as possible for the last few minutes she had. Her meagre belongings were already packed in a small satchel. Her usual tunic along with another dress for her arrival at the Psycho territory, a pen, a book and a comb.

If she had known that someone would hear her wish to get out of this place she would have been a little more specific with the details. Like, not getting sacrificed or a life in actual freedom.

 

She yelped when two of the monks came into her room and motioned her to get up. Morton wasn’t one of them so that was a plus, at least. She was brought before the grand masters who gave her a last briefing: don’t run away, be nice, don’t ruin this and don’t use your powers against us. Maya nodded at everything they told her but her hope of getting her powers at all had vanished into thin air like water on a hot stone.

The procession with her up on a Light Runner, which’s gun tower had been transformed into a podium for her, made its way down the uneven road and the closer she came to the huge gates, the harder it was for her to breathe. This was everything she wanted and everything she feared. Maya had never imagined to leave the city at all and now in a few minutes she would probably never see it again and breathe new air. Freedom was a scary thing.

 

-

 

Freedom was boring as hell. Or rather being out of the city was. Three days into their journey and the most exciting thing she had seen was a dead skag. The lush green fields soon became uninteresting and sitting in a Bandit Tactical without radio or another source of entertainment that wasn’t Mortons burping the alphabet, was torture. The soon to be Siren actually wished to be back in her small room with rotten walls and mould on her bed, at least there it was quiet and she wouldn’t be sick from the uneven road.

The sun began to set, earlier than yesterday, but who was she to keep track of Pandoras weird solar cycle. The vegetation that had become less and less like the one she was used to and more sandy and rocky, looking grey and sad in the fading light. They didn’t stop, like they did the days before at sundown and she climbed over sleeping (or hopefully dead) Morton to talk to the driver.

 

“Why aren’t we stopping?”

“None of your business. Do something you understand. Like knitting.” He replied around that straw in his mouth and she punched his shoulder.

“Why aren’t we stopping?” She was hungry and sick from the bumpy road and she needed to pee. Urgently. The driver rolled his eyes, a movement she caught in the mirror, and motioned her to climb into the diver’s cabin. The other monk who even had a shotgun to protect them from skags that would attack their vehicle was slumped against the window, sleeping.

“We’re too close to the pirates territory, so we have to keep going in case they’re on the lookout for us.”

“They know about us?” The Monks usually laid a low profile and she expected that no one would even look twice at her if they were ambushed.

“You never know. Scarlett is a backstabbing bitch.” He thought this would satisfy her enough, but it didn’t.

“Who is Scarlett?”

“You don’t know who Scarlett- oh well, listen, girl, this woman is a back stabbing bitch. A real, mean, backstabbing whore. That’s all you need to know.”

“And why is she backstabbing?”

“Because she stabs people in the back.” He said really slowly as if she was dense or something.

“Well, thank you.” She spat out with venom in her voice and climbed back into the truck bed. She may or may not have kicked Morton during her little adventure and it may or may not have been on accident.

“Beautiful evening, right?” He asked after looking around confused for a moment and Maya really wanted to throw him off the Bandit Tactical. But at least he wasn’t burping. Yet.

“Who is Scarlett?”

“Scarlett the backstabbing bitch?” Morton asked and yawned.

“Yes.” Was that all to this stupid woman?

“She is the leader of The Pirates. Beautiful, but backstabbing.”

Maya rolled her eyes, if someone said “backstabbing” one more time it wouldn’t be Scarlett anymore who was famous for it.

“Why does everyone call her that?” Morton might come in handy as a source of information the Siren realised.

“She has betrayed everyone she worked with so far. Didn’t always end well for her, I heard. Rumour has it, since the fight with Captain Blade she isn’t the beauty she once was. But I don’t know if that’s true. Beauty is such a weird concept and also so subjective to perceive, you know?” He paused and stared into the distance thoughtfully. “It really is…” He murmured.

“What did she do?” Maya tried to get him talking again. “I mean what did she do to us?”

“Us?” Morton echoed and looked at her with a really dumb expression. “Nothing yet.”

“I mean The Monks.”

“Oooooh. Well I’m not so sure…” He zoned out again what led Maya to snap her fingers in front of his face. “But I guess she betrayed us in a way. Happened a while ago thought, something with the Rustyyard Bandits, I reckon...”

Maya stared at him a few more moments but this was probably all she could get out of him for now. She leaned back and tried to forget how sick she was from the ride and how bad she needed to pee. But soon, those were the only things she could think of and soon she had to look as miserable as she felt, because Morton noticed.

“Are you like… sick?” He asked carefully. She contemplated throwing up on him instead of giving an answer.

“Maybe you should drink something?” He dug around for the flask but Maya shook her head. Bad idea.

“Okay, I’ll ask them to stop maybe?”

She nodded too quickly for her own good and leaned over the railing, just in case.

When the Bandit Tactical stopped she rushed off the dirt road to the bushes, ignoring the “Don’t try to run away!” that they yelled after her.

After she finally relieved herself she rearranged her hairclips and took a deep breath. She felt better now, with solid ground beneath her feet but her stomach still felt funny, probably because she hadn’t eaten in a while. When she walked back she decided to take her time. It was easy finding her path back, thought she had gone a greater distance than originally planned. The last light of the sun finally left Pandora and Maya stumbled a few times over sticks and stones and even ran headfirst into a branch, what angered a few smaller Rakks. Waving her arms through the air to protect herself from these flying bastard she finally made it back to the road…

…and was greeted by fire.

If she ever wondered what an exploded vehicle looked like, it now was answered. There was a horrible stench in the air, smells she couldn’t really identify and her skin felt hot and tight from the fire that lazily consumed what was left of the Bandit Tactical. A dead body lay just a few feet from her and with a shriek she jumped back, stepping on a piece of metal and falling to the ground. An undignified sound left her when she hit the hard ground, but her eyes never left the gruesome scene before her. The driver had probably been killed in the explosion, the dead body must be Morton. Where was the guy with the shotgun? Why hadn’t she heard anything? And why did the car explode?

A movement behind the flames startled her and she scooted back toward the bushed to hide herself. A figure dragged another dead body before dropping it and roughly searching through the pockets.

“This one’s got nothing, too!” The figure shouted over its shoulder. “What a waste of time! And explosives…”

Maya was positive her heart stopped beating. Someone had attacked them in her absence and killed her companions. They were dead. Because they stopped. Because of her.

She dragged in a breath and if felt like she inhaled pure dirt and death. The stench now clung to her lips, filled her lungs and made her tongue go numb. Was this the taste of freedom? She suddenly regretted even thinking of leaving the monks. She was not prepared for the world outside, for its cruelty and death and evil people.

She coughed because she still couldn’t really breathe, her eyes glued to the person scavenging the body. A part of her brain told her to run away as fast as she could and hide, because the figure had called at someone, so there were at least two of them. She surely couldn’t even take down one man, so no way to try fighting. Her body was still paralysed. Her mind screamed to run and saved herself yet she seemed to have forgotten how to do a trivial task as standing up.

The scavenger stood up and kicked the dead Monk, obviously angered by their lack of possession and continued to complain loudly about it to yet unseen companions. Maya carefully pushed herself backwards, not trusting herself to stand up. The sick feeling in her stomach was back, probably because of the smell of burned flesh. She had almost reached the bushes, now illuminated by the fire, when the attacker looked at her direction and then at her. He stilled, smirked. The smile was intimidating and cruel, sharp features emphasized by the flickering of the flames.

“Ooooooh… Looks like we forgot something.” He took a dagger from his belt and slowly made his way towards Maya, as if she was a scared animal and he didn’t want to startle her. He was dressed in ragged clothing and another sword dangled from his side, so she figured he must be one of Scarletts pirates. He took his time whilst she scooted backwards, panicking but apparently he was confident that she won’t run.

“Come here, little girl. We just want to play…” he said in a low voice that made her shiver. The sticks of the bushed behind her already poked through her dress but she didn’t get up until her hand touched a something sharp and cold what send a hot pain through her arm and right into her shoulder. She screamed in pain and fear and finally managed to get up, roll around and run back to where she came from.

“Stop! You little bitch!” the Pirate yelled and took off behind her.

Maya never had many occasions where she could practise running and she was out of breath soon. Her sides stung like crazy but she didn’t dare to stop. The pirate was still behind her, screaming and slicing his dagger through the twigs and leafs in his way.

A branch hit her square in the face and poked in her left eye, but there was not time for stopping and self pity. Some of her hairclips had been lost already and scratches covered her arms. It dawned her that she wasn’t exactly quiet and practically left a path behind her for her attacker. It only thing that would save the young woman was to hide and hope that he wouldn’t come back with more people to look for her.

Whilst trying to see something in the almost complete darkness and making her steps as light as possible, she attempted to look for some place to hide that wasn’t obvious. Cracking and cursing told her that she was still being followed, but when it got more and more quiet he’d either changed his strategy to stealth, too, or she was further away from him that she though.

Even though this day had shown, that she wasn’t really lucky when it came to making wishes, some deity still looked after her and took pity on her miserable situation: she stopped to look for a hideout, right before a steep cliff.

Maya gasped for air when she understood how lucky she’d just been and adding to the adrenaline that was already cursing through her body a wave of dread with vivid mental images of her potential fall filled her mind.

It took her a valuable minute to regain control over herself before she turned left and continued walking.

Suddenly, a noise somewhere in front to her made her jump.

Did she walk in a circle? Was it backup? Was it an animal?

She was unarmed and wouldn’t be able to even fight off a baby skag! If it was a skag, she’d be fucked either way so hiding from the pirate behind her and the potential thread in front of her seemed the best option.

Maya pressed herself close to the boulder that was next to the little bush she’d stumbled into and caught her breath. The ground beneath her was still a little warm from the sun and the soft sand and sparse blades of grass were oddly comforting. If she wasn’t in danger, she’d fount it really pretty probably.

The sound of cracking wood made her jump and duck even closer to the ground until she almost inhaled some of the fine sand. A huge dark shape moved with the confidence of an undefeated predator, stopping to sniff the air once in a while and making low growling sounds.

An alpha skag.

Maya had never seen a skag up close before and never had the desire to do so, anyways. Despite her growing fear she hoped that the skag would see the pirate as the greater danger to his pack and attack him, giving her valuable seconds to escape.

As on cue, the pirate as well as his companions emerged.

The skag howled, the pirates cursed and opened fire. Her original plan to continue her way when they fought was somewhat compromised by the stray bullets bouncing off the skags armoured body. Was getting shot worth the risk? Probably.

Would she move anytime soon? Probably not.

Every time she tried to leave, a bullet would hit the ground close to her, daring her to move. She calculated her chance of survival if the pirate won and found her, maybe he wouldn’t kill her and she could make him agree to take her hostage or something. But would she really want to be in captivity again?

No!

Never again!

Even if she died, she would die being free.

With new found determination she stood up and ran. Behind her, one of the pirates screamed, accompanied by the sound of huge teeth breaking flesh and cracking bones.

“Fucking bitch!” the other pirate screamed, having spotted her, now trying to run around the skag and after Maya. His insult had made her look over her shoulder, a fatal mistake because seconds later she was face first in the sand, again. This time thought, she didn’t spend so long on the ground and being afraid. She rolled around and got up. The skag, being busy with his lunch and not being attacked anymore, dismissed the pirate long enough for him to go after her.

He drew his sword and out of reflex Maya held up her hand to protect herself, like it would make a difference. Except it did.

She stared at the pirate who seemed frozen to the spot, being equally confused as her and cursing even louder. A few seconds of wide eyed stares passed, then she started running again.

Whatever just happened was a question for another day, when she had brought enough distance between everything that wanted to kill her and herself. Now she would run and hide and stay alive because after all, like she always wanted, she was free.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi!  
> Thank you so much for your support and reviews so far!  
> I will try to improve my wrinting and update regulary!
> 
> I hope you enjoyed it!  
> Please let me know if I did any mistakes so I can fix them!

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you very much for reading!


End file.
